Title: Almost HomeCharacter(s)/Pairing: Finn, Puck, Finn/PuckRating: PG-13Word Count: 1,100Status: CompleteNotes/Warnings: Fourth and final day of Army Boyfriends!Summary: Home. The word meant something to everyone, but to a soldier, it didn’t always mean four familiar walls. It meant people. It meant family. It meant having them with you. They might still be in a hospital, but it was on American soil and that put them that much closer.

“We’re clear!” Ray called when the shooting had finally stopped. “Report!”

Finn heard it. Heard Lacey and Benji shout out that they were fine. Benji said Hector and Paul were dead. Listed off the names of everyone that had been in the humvee in front of them, because no one had made it out of that. They’d known that with the first blast.

“Hudson! Puckerman!”

Right. He hadn’t called in.

“Here!” he shouted. “Behind the humvee! We need a medic!”

Right. Paul was dead.

They didn’t have a medic and Puck was bleeding out under his one good hand. He couldn’t remember how long ago Puck had finally passed out or how long they had been back there, but Puck was pale. He was too pale.

Benji said he’d radioed for help when the attack started.

Lacey tried to take his place at Puck’s side and Finn screamed at her.

Always quiet, never even whispering the thought of making a commitment to what they were, but everyone knew. Everyone knew and, somehow, that made everything hurt more.

He didn’t want Puck to die in his arms, but he didn’t want Puck to die out of them either.

No one could even explain how the shooter had gotten so close, but in the heat of the moment and the haze… They had thought it was a long-distance attack. They hadn’t seen someone sneaking in. Two high caliber shots right into Puck’s chest, ripping through his Kevlar and…

Finn pressed his eyes shut, holding onto Puck’s hand tighter. He just… He couldn’t think about that right now. Or ever. Maybe not think about it ever. Never thinking about it seemed like a really good idea, but he wasn’t sure it would happen until him and Puck were back in their little apartment in North Carolina. Together.

Or back in Lima.

He didn’t know what was coming for them. Didn’t know where Puck stood with his future in the army any more than he knew about his. He glanced down at his arm, encased in a cast and wondered where that left him.

He didn’t even remember it breaking. Didn’t remember anything except the realization that he couldn’t move his arm and that adrenaline was kind of awesome because he didn’t really feel the pain.

He hadn’t even realized that his bone was poking out of his skin until help had arrived and someone had cut his sleeve away.

“You’ll have to wait out the healing process. We’ve reset the bone, but how it heals is up to your body.”

At least he hadn’t been shot.

He pressed a kiss to Puck’s hand and it wasn’t like the guy was unconscious. He was just sleeping again, pulled away by the pain meds they’d put him on. Shut away in a hospital, but finally back on American soil. Finally together again, even if they weren’t home in that apartment.

“Missed you,” he murmured to the other man, his lips still against Puck’s knuckles. Flying back to North Carolina without him… He hadn’t wanted it. Hadn’t wanted it any more than he had wanted to walk into their place, alone, while Puck was still hospitalized overseas, waiting until the doctors declared him stable enough for travel.

When they had moved into that apartment, they had said it was too small. Two bedrooms when they really only needed one, but unwilling to actually tell anyone that. It had been the first place they’d found after they transferred from Fort Benning to Fort Bragg. They’d grabbed it. Now, it felt like it was too big. Too lonely.

“Gonna get you home soon,” he promised. “You just gotta heal up some more.” They’d deal with everything else after that. Figuring out their futures in the army. Seeing their families with what time they had before they were given so much as restrictive duty. He’d be ready to go before Puck, but… Time. They’d get time.

Maybe in time, he’d stop choking on the image of Puck’s chest, healing wounds that would become scars. Permanent memories of someone getting too close to taking him away.

Permanent memories of the moment that Finn really thought he’d made a mistake in choosing the army. Puck never would have joined if he hadn’t come up with the idea first.

But he had and Puck had and, now, they were sitting in a hospital room in Womack. Waiting for broken bones to mend. Waiting for bullet wounds to heal. Waiting for the nightmares to fade until no one woke up screaming. Until he didn’t wake up crying.

“Told you to go home…”

Finn looked up when he heard the groggy voice and his eyes softened when he saw Puck looking back at him. “Hey,” he whispered as Puck let their fingers thread together. “I told you I was gonna stick around.”

Puck didn’t say anything as he pulled him down into another kiss and maybe he had stopped caring about bad breath or maybe he had realized that Finn kind of wanted to cry right about then. He kissed him anyway, soft and careful, like he had with their first kiss. He melted into it, a little desperate and… Shit. He loved him. He loved Puck so much that it hurt and the thought that he almost had to say goodbye…

He breathed the words against Puck’s lips, but Puck didn’t say it back until the kiss had broken.

It all ended nice and happy. <3 This verse is actually over. Since I wrote it for the four-day Pinn Weekend event, I only planned out the four fics. And with the ending of this last one echoing back to the first line of the first fic, I think it's a good place to leave it and let the boys live happily.